I have two quick videos to share with you today and I’d like to thank Kem Meyer whose post this week reminded me that I’ve been meaning to do this for some time. I thank Kem also for offering this quote from Craig Groeschel, founder of LifeChurch.tv:
“We used to spend our time trying to get people to come to church. Now, we’ve got to find ways to take church to them.” Craig Groeschel
I have spent a fair bit of my time over the last few years explaining the web to people. The people I talk to are smart people but the internet is new – and it’s new in a new kind of way. It is a transformative presence in our lives in ways we have never seen from a technology – or collection of technologies.
This kind of change often leads to suspicion and fear and I used to try to allay those fears by framing the internet revolution as an evolution instead. “Don’t worry,” I would say, “this is no different than the advent of the printing press, telegraph, telephone and television. The web is merely the next step along the road of communication technology. It’s no big deal, you can relax.” To hear me tell it, this was a mere incremental advance in a long string of similar advances.
I was wrong, though, and I knew it. My desire to make my audiences as comfortable as possible with things like blogs, Facebook and Twitter trumped any desire to tell the truth. The truth is this: the the web is a technological revolution that has transformed, and continues to transform, our global society. Nothing will be spared the impact of the web. Our socio-political structures will change, our understanding of personal relationships will change (in just the last eighteen months a single website has made the word “friend” globally ambiguous), and, eventually, our churches will change too.
Don’t take my word for it, though, I’ve lied about this before. Let Clay Shirky, a professor at New York University’s graduate Interactive Telecommunications Program, tell you. In June of this year, Shirky spoke to the US State Department as part of the TEDTalks program. In just fifteen minutes and a handful of slides Shirky is able to distill the seismic shift we are experiencing into accessible language and concepts. This video skyrocketed to the top of my “videos everyone must watch” list:
A while back I realized that the most effective way to talk about being Presbyterian is to actually talk about being Presbyterian! I’m pleased to announce the launch of the BeingPresbyterian Podcast right here at BeingPresbyterian.ca.
In this “inaugural” episode, I chat with Rev. Matt Brough. Matt is the minister at one of The Presbyterian Church in Canada’s newest congregations, Trinity Winnipeg. Matt, a recovering web developer like me, talks with me about the impact of social media (Facebook, blogging, Twitter, etc.) on his ministry.
Update: I forgot to mention that Matt and I also chatted about how ‘cool’ the Presbyterian polity is. Really.
Matt also does a great job of pitching CanadaYouth09 at the end, so be sure to listen all the way through!
The Facebookphenomenon has begun to (finally) find its way into the Canadian Presbyterian community. This means that Presbyterians from across the country have begun to experience the fellowship opportunities that social networking sites like Facebook offer.
There are currently at least 25close to 50 groups on Facebook related to the Canadian Presbyterian community – and I’m sure there are many I haven’t found. Here are just a few:
If you don’t spend much time on Facebook, you might think that we must have had an explosion of university students in The PCC. As much as we would welcome such a blessing, the demographics of Facebook now are much different than they were just eighteen months ago and conventional wisdom hasn’t yet caught up. In fact, most Canadian adults on Facebook are over 25.
What is even more surprising is the sheer number of Canadians that spend some of their time connecting with friends and family on Facebook. About 11 million Canadians now have Facebook accounts – that represents well over a third of Canadian adults. Using demographic information extracted from Facebook’s advertising system, I was able to determine the size of each age group on Facebook for Canada. The results are:
Age Range
Number
Percent
13-17
1,553,300
14.00
18-25
4,004,200
36.10
26-35
2,906,640
26.20
36-45
1,421,520
12.81
46-55
691,760
6.24
56-65
372,940
3.36
65+
142,320
1.28
Total
11,092,680
While it’s clear that the university crowd is the largest single age group on Facebook, Canadians over the age of 25 represent about half of the entire Canadian Facebook population. To me, these numbers represent a huge ministry opportunity for The Presbyterian Church in Canada.
What do you think? In what ways could we, as a denomination, reach out to the Presbyterian community that already exists on Facebook?
In February, I’ll be speaking at an unconference called PodCampToronto where I’ll be leading a discussion called “First Church of Facebook: an Exploration of Faith and Social Media.” We’ll be talking about the ways that Canada’s faith community are (or could be) using social media (like Facebook) to engage and minister to their constituents. If you have a story about how social media played a part in ministry, please share it with me either in the comments below or by email: ccarmichael@presbyterian.ca.
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